Abstract

                                Functional foods are in great demand worldwide because of their many health benefits. As milk is a nutrient-dense diet that comprises all vital nutrients, it can be utilized as the primary base to produce a variety of functional foods. Ginger, cinnamon and pumpkin possess tremendous nutritional and therapeutic properties such as stimulating the digestive system, lowering blood cholesterol levels and exhibiting antioxidant,anti-diabetic, antibacterial, antiviral and anti-carcinogenic activities, preventing oxidative stress-related diseases and in the ageing process. In this study, aqueous cinnamon and ginger extracts and pumpkin pulp were made and their functional properties like antioxidant activity and total phenolic content have been evaluated. Functional milk beverage was made using milk, cinnamon aqueous extract, ginger aqueous extract and yellow pumpkin pulp. The level of inclusion of these components was optimized using D-optimal mixture design (Design Expert Software) with regard to sensory attributes.The optimized level of functional milk beverage was chosen based on the desirability of the design and the range assigned to each response. The level of incorporation of milk, pumpkin pulp, aqueous cinnamon and ginger extracts were optimized at 40%, 10%, 20%, and 30% respectively. The antioxidant activity of the cinnamon aqueous extract, ginger aqueous extract, pumpkin pulp and optimized functional milk beverage was found to be 69.95 ± 0.07 %, 56.45 ± 0.08 %, 25.80 ± 0.10 and 60.53 ± 0.03 % respectively. The total phenolic content of cinnamon aqueous extract, ginger aqueous extract, pumpkin pulp and optimized functional milk beverage were 450.88 ± 0.03 mgGAE/100g, 106.93 ± 0.02 mgGAE/100g, 15.59 ± 0.09 mgGAE/100g and 280.63 ± 0.02 mgGAE/100g respectively.

Key words : unctional milk beverage; Ginger; Cinnamon; Pumpkin; Sensory; Antioxidant activity; Phenolic content